Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is based on a novel (written in two parts for Rolling Stone magazine), itself based on two trips taken by Hunter S. Thompson and his lawyer, Oscar Zeta Acosta (going by the pseudonyms Raul Duke and Dr. Gonzo, respectively) into Las Vegas. The first, a job for Sports Illustrated to cover the Mint 400 desert race, quickly devolves into a festival of an array of drugs, alcohol, hallucination, paranoia, and the freakish neon of the American Sin City. The second trip, to cover the National DA’s Association conference on drugs for Rolling Stone, gets out of hand when Dr. Gonzo brings along a young lady named Lucy who he gave LSD while on the plane.

They put her up in a hotel before her trip ends, and do their best to avoid her while attending the speech about the dangers of marijuana and covertly doing cocaine. They head back to their hotel, where Gonzo deals with Lucy over the phone by pretending to be beaten by thugs while Duke tries to unwind by doing some of Gonzo’s adrenochrome, which turns him into a babbling, incoherent mess before collapsing.